Chapter 35 The Wailing

  Despite her initial fright an urge to follow her husband seized Honey.

  "Winifred?"

  "Mama?"

  "Goldilocks!"

***

  Clover sat on the old wood bench warming her feet.  She couldn't bare it upstairs any longer.  Goldilocks laying in bed, murmuring odd things as she slept.  "Too hot!"  "Too cold!"  "Too hard!"  "Too soft!"  At first her mother called upon her to get more blankets, open windows, find other pillows.  But after a time she stopped.  It didn't seem to make a difference.  Mama called it fever talk.  The last had been the worst.  She'd screamed, "They're going to eat me!"  Clover had slipped downstairs while mama tried to soothe her.  How long had it been?  How many days of waiting?  Clover could not remember.  It was all a blur.  Clover shivered.  Then she shivered again.  She stood to put another log on the fire.  And then she heard it.

  "NO!!!  MY BABY!  Not my baby...."  And then the wailing.

  Clover's breath came in gasps.  It was then she realized the wailing had come from her lips.

  The waiting is over.